The embargo has lifted for Marvel Studios’ latest film, Black Panther, and it sounds like they’ve done it again. As of this writing, there are 44 reviews on the review aggregate site, and of those, 100 percent of them are positive. That’s right. the film is off to a solid start!

“Like many of the best of the MCU movies, Black Panther doesn’t waste time laying out a lot of groundwork for films to come (still, stay for those closing credits) and it doesn’t assume that you’ve seen and memorized the previous 17 movies (still, if you have, you’ll pick up on a thing or two that others might miss). It’s already been announced that Black Panther will fight alongside the Avengers in the upcoming Infinity War, but here’s hoping he brings as much of his entourage with him as possible.”

“Energized to a thrilling extent by a myriad of Afrocentric influences, Black Panther showcases a vivid inventiveness that underscores the obvious point that we want all cultures and colors represented on screen because that makes for a richness of cinematic experience that everyone enjoys being exposed to.

Like Christopher Nolan, who was 35 when he reanimated the Batman franchise, the 31-year-old Coogler has a gift for putting his own spin on genre, for making popular culture worlds his own.”

“Black Panther is Marvel’s boldest movie yet, and fortunately, it’s also one of its best. As a studio, Marvel has thrived by redefining the constructs of serialized cinematic storytelling, honoring the comic book characters fans love, and allowing filmmakers to put their singular stamp on the material. Back Panther checks all those marks, but it’s also allowed to be more insular than the average Marvel movie; a decision that proves not just beneficial, but essential when you realize the full weight of the story it wants to tell. Because Black Panther isn’t just a crowd-pleasing superhero movie (though it is that for sure), it’s a vital moment in cinema history and a heartfelt, thoughtful exploration of the scars of colonialism and the hope for healing.”

“Race matters in Black Panther and it matters deeply, not in terms of Manichaean good guys and bad but as a means to explore larger human concerns about the past, the present and the uses and abuses of power. That alone makes it more thoughtful about how the world works than a lot of mainstream movies, even if those ideas are interspersed with plenty of comic-book posturing. It wouldn’t be a Marvel production without manly skirmishes and digital avatars. Yet in its emphasis on black imagination, creation and liberation, the movie becomes an emblem of a past that was denied and a future that feels very present. And in doing so opens up its world, and yours, beautifully.”

“Coogler’s filmmaking isn’t flawless. The CG backdrops veer into screensaver territory, and the battle scenes are often shot in turbulent closeup; the last 30 minutes are so frenetic it feels like there are defibrillator pads sewn into the theater seats. But he infuses nearly every frame with soul and style, and makes the radical case that a comic-book movie can actually have something meaningful — beyond boom or kapow or America — to say. In that context, Panther’s nuanced celebration of pride and identity and personal responsibility doesn’t just feel like a fresh direction for the genre, it’s the movie’s own true superpower.”

A couple of our staff here at LRM have seen the film as well, and while our review won’t be up until next week, I can say that these reviews do fall in line with what other writers have experienced.

Are you excited for Black Panther? Let us know your thoughts down below!

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Joseph Jammer Medina is an author, podcaster, and editor-in-chief of LRM. A graduate of Chapman University's Dodge College of Film and Television, Jammer's always had a craving for stories. From movies, television, and web content to books, anime, and manga, he's always been something of a story junkie.

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